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Politics : Middle East Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: brightness00 who wrote (668)	1/30/2002 4:37:14 PM
From: Elmer Flugum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6945

Sharon approves hi-tech security plan to seal off Jerusalem in its entirety By Phil Reeves in Jerusalem 30 January 2002 Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, approved a plan yesterday for security measures to seal off Jerusalem from the West Bank. The plan is expected to include look-out towers, electronic cameras, trenches and more military checkpoints. Proposals to fortify the entire metropolis – including its occupied Arab eastern half – came as the city spent another day on the highest alert. Mr Sharon – who campaigned for election last year on a promise of providing security – met senior officials from the Israeli police, army, intelligence services and City Hall to discuss the plan, called "Enveloping Jerusalem". Events were watched closely by his critics, who pointed out that Israel has been steadily strengthening its political control of the city, and the long military blockade of the occupied territories has, so far, failed to stop Palestinian attacks. Mr Sharon appears to have rejected police proposals that the plan should include building a wall to separate parts of east and west Jerusalem. He refused on the grounds that it would be tantamount to the re-division of the city – flying in the face of Israeli opinion that it should be their unified capital. Mr Sharon said: "The plan must be treated as a whole, covering the Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods alike."The Public Security Minister, Uzi Landau, a hardline right-winger, said talk of walls dividing the city was "simply nonsense". He said the plan was an effort to build a barrier between Jerusalem and "the Arab congestion" around it. The idea of separation has long been debated in Israel, despite the enormous cost and impracticality of disentangling the Arab and Jewish populations – closely entwined in some areas – and despite the 1.2 million Arabs with Israeli citizenship, or ID papers, living inside Israel's pre-1967 borders.

To: brightness00 who wrote (668)	1/31/2002 4:56:58 PM
From: Elmer Flugum	Respond to of 6945

Gangsterism? January 31, 2002 Sharon Regrets Arafat Not 'Eliminated' in 1982 By REUTERS Filed at 3:11 p.m. ET JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview on Thursday Israel should have killed Yasser Arafat in 1982 when it had the Palestinian leader under siege in Beirut. Sharon's comments underlined the depth of animosity between himself and Arafat after 16 months of violence and pushed the prospects of their holding peace talks even further back. Recriminations over Sharon's remarks and an incident in which Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip overshadowed international efforts to persuade the United States to resume high-level mediation in the conflict. But in a new sign of attempts to secure a truce, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he expected to meet Palestinian parliamentary speaker Ahmed Korei on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in New York later on Thursday. ``The prime minister knows I am going to meet himand knows what I will speak to him about,'' Peres told Israel's Channel One television in an interview. Previous meetings between the two architects of interim Middle East peace deals have failed to stem the bloodshed, and Sharon has previously given Peres a limited mandate. Sharon blames Arafat for failing to rein in militant groups during the 16-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation. Arafat accuses Sharon of blocking peace, and his aides say the Israeli leader has a vendetta to remove Arafat from the scene. Their animosity goes back decades, to when Arafat was in Lebanon during Israel's invasion in 1982. ``In Lebanon it was agreed that Arafat would not be eliminated. To tell the truth, I'm sorry we didn't eliminate him,'' Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Maariv. SHARON, ARAFAT LONG-TIME FOES Sharon directed the invasion of Lebanon as defense minister, sending tanks and troops to the outskirts of Beirut where they bottled up Arafat and his PLO fighters before an internationally brokered deal led to the Palestinians' evacuation by sea. His remarks were condemned by Palestinian officials. ``I think this reflects what has been always said -- that Sharon is trying to finish what he began in 1982,'' cabinet member Saeb Erekat said. ``And for prime ministers to announce openly their gangster intentions is a reflection of what kind of government we're dealing with.'' Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, whose country holds the European Union presidency, said he had not seen Sharon's remarks but that, if confirmed, ``they deserve our rejection.'' Government spokesman Raanan Gissin said Israel had no plans to oust or kill Arafat, although the army has confined Arafat to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. VIOLENCE IN GAZA STRIP Fresh violence erupted shortly before Middle East envoys from the United Nations, the European Union and Russia were due to meet U.S. officials in Washington to discuss the conflict. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called for more pressure on Arafat before meeting President Bush in Washington. Arafat says his ability to rein in militant groups is limited by Israeli raids and shootings which fuel anger. Earlier on Thursday, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian gunmen from the Islamic militant group Hamas who ambushed a convoy headed for a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. Shortly after the attack, mortar shells hit a settlement in the Gush Katif bloc, injuring one Israeli. Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces entered the nearby Khan Younis refugee camp and detained 10 Palestinians at a Gaza Strip checkpoint. Israeli forces entered a Palestinian Authority office in the West Bank town of el-Eizariyeh, confiscating documents and smashing furniture, Palestinian security officials said. The army said the building was illegally used by Palestinian security services. At least 826 Palestinians and 249 Israelis have been killed in the uprising that began in September 2000.